
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 29, 1990                   TAG: 9003290721
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: INDEPENDENCE                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S. 58 PROJECT CONFLICT BUILDS

Governing bodies in the Mount Rogers Planning District have launched a pre-emptive strike against a letter-writing campaign by citizens expressing concerns about the environmental impact of reconstructing U.S. 58 across the state.

Most of the concern has come from people in Grayson County, where the planned four-laning would cross scenic mountainous terrain. State transportation officials have still not decided whether the upgraded U.S. 58 should be rerouted to avoid Grayson.

According to Tom Taylor, executive director of the planning district commission, the campaign has raised questions among some legislators as to whether Southwest Virginia still wants the costly improvements carried out.

Local governments have formally said yes.

All six county boards of supervisors and both city councils in the planning district have passed resolutions endorsing the four-laning to be carried out as closely as possible to the existing route. The resolutions, based on a model taken to the governing bodies by Taylor at the commission's direction, also call for minimizing any environmental impact.

The Bland County Board of Supervisors and Galax City Council became the last of the eight governing bodies to approve the resolution this week.

In Bland, Supervisor William Reed Ramsey voted against it because it expressed "complete confidence in the integrity of the Virginia Department of Transportation environmental assessment process" and he said he disagreed with that part of it.

But governmental support has generally been positive for the project from throughout the planning district. Last year, when the commission sent Taylor to Richmond as a Southwest Virginia lobbyist, the localities had told him that his main goal should be gaining funding support for four-laning U.S. 58.

The state has agreed to upgrade the more than 500 miles of U.S. 58 from Lee County east to Virginia Beach, which is seen as another way of opening up Southwest Virginia for tourism and industrial development. Completion is not anticipated before the turn of the century.

Independence Mayor Charles Austin had urged supportersof the project to begin a letter-writing campaign of their own.

by CNB